Transgene Gets NIH Funds to Tackle TB with Emergent BioSolutions

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Emergent BioSolutions granted a sub-award to Transgene under the former's existing grant of approximately $5 million from NIAID, which was awarded back in March of 2012 to advance the development of MVA85A, a candidate vaccine against tuberculosis (TB). Transgene will be using the funding to advance their TB immunotherapy program.

Transgene is collaborating with Emergent BioSolutions for cell-line process development and manufacturing for Transgene’s TB development candidate. Transgene is retaining all development and commercialization rights to candidates generated under this program.

Transgene's TB program, which was described by their chairman and CEO Philippe Archinard as "a unique, truly innovative antigenic combination" in a statement, is focused on developing a targeted immunotherapeutic to treat active TB, including resistant TB, using the company’s viral vector technology. Transgene says these immunotherapeutics contain an array of TB proteins expressed during all phases of both active and latent infection; several potential product candidates Transgene has generated are currently being evaluated to determine which one will be advanced into further development.